Photo by Erin Nelson.
Taylor England, a Vestavia Hills resident originally from San Diego, skates outside the Finley Center in the Hoover Metropolitan Complex in September 2021. She said then she skates there whenever she can because there isn’t another skate park nearby. The city of Hoover has set aside land for a skate park at the Hoover Met Complex.
Efforts to raise money to build a skate park at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex have not been very successful thus far.
A year ago, Blackridge resident Johnny Grimes had formed a nonprofit called Skate Alabama and announced the group wanted to build a 20,000-square-foot park for skateboarding, inline skating and BMX biking at the Hoover Met Complex, which at the time was expected to cost $600,000 to $900,000.
Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said then that if the skateboard community could raise the money to build a new skate park, the city would allow it to be built at the Met Complex and would oversee and maintain it.
A year later, Grimes said the group thus far has received about $20,000 in pledges, and half of that is from his own family.
“It’s just a big, big task,” Grimes said.
The biggest challenge is that it’s hard to ask people, companies and other organizations for money if the city is not willing to at least partially fund the project, Grimes said. Other cities, such as Cullman and Huntsville, have put money in their skate parks, he said.
Huntsville, in particular, is putting $3 million of city money together with a $1 million private donation to build one of the biggest skate parks in the country, Grimes said.
Hoover officials have shown enthusiasm for a skate park, and their agreement to provide land and maintenance of a park is very much appreciated, but financial assistance with construction would go a long way to help entice other donors, he said.
Hoover Council President John Lyda said he can understand how city participation in construction would lend some credibility to fundraising efforts and said he believes the City Council would welcome further conversations with Grimes and other skate park supporters.
However, the council will be looking to the city’s Parks and Recreation Board for advice about priorities for park and recreation projects in the city, Lyda said.
